Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat

Formerly known as the Academy of Music, Her Majesty’s Theatre is the oldest continually operating theatre in mainland Australia. (The Ballarat Courier, in its edition of Tuesday 8 June 1873, boasts “The first and only Temple of Apollo in the colonies…”) It became Her Majesty’s Theatre in 1899, then the Memorial Theatre in 1965. After a period of decline, the theatre underwent major restoration and was relaunched in 1990, again as Her Majesty’s.

The brief for the design of the identity for Her Majesty’s Theatre was to “resolve a symbolic representation for Her Majesty’s, the Board’s Mission and Objectives, the Theatre’s history, its architectural and decorative aspects… (to) come up with an image that succinctly projects the dynamics of Her Majesty’s Theatre’s engagement with its public.”

To quote from the Manager’s Report of May 1990 to the Board, “(the) logo and stationery is now ready and I am delighted with it. It has a vivacity – a childlike joie de vivre. I believe it is in concord with that spot in all of us from where creativity springs. It says something of the manner in which we want to go on into the future.”

In 1992, the logo was recognised for its design excellence when it received a Certificate of Excellence and inclusion in the publication International Logos & Trademarks II, 1993.